You will be stared at, a lot and intensely, get used to it early.
Indians, men especially, are going to stare at you, and it is not that
curious, 'hey, look, there is something new over there' look and then
move on. It is the 'stop whatever you are doing, turn, en masse and
don't look away until he is just a dot on the horizon' look. At first, I
tried looking back. In NA, if someone is staring and you look them
directly in the eye they will almost always turn away. This does not
work here. So I switched to 'passive ignorance' which is to always look
like there is something more interesting to see just to the side.
Doesn't stop them from staring but it makes me care less that they are.
I took the train to Vashi and on the way back I am sitting in the back of the car with about 15 men staring at me. One of them finally engages me in conversation. "London?", this is a typical belief, (not America, which I find strange), "No, Canada" "Oh, do you know Toronto?" another typical question , "Yes, I live close to there, it is 0 Celsius there today" Now the hard stares have turned to rapt attention. "Snow?" "Soon, probably another couple weeks." More questions and soon I must get out at my station, they seem disappointed that I am leaving, I will probably be the discussion at dinner that night.
Another interesting phenomenon which I am calling a reverse race bias. I noticed it first at the Airport. After you leave baggage, there is yet another security check out where they scan your bags again. I got in line and a security person pulls me out of line, saying "you do not need to go through security" and passes me through unchecked. Then the next day, security at the complex I am working out is checking vehicles, opening trunks, they are about to check our vehicle when he sees me and passes us through, same when we exit. When I am out for a walk, if I am facing traffic, no one honks at me but if I am facing away from traffic, they honk away merrily. I would have expected something different based on India's experience with Colonialism so I asked a local about this and he said there was actually a very good, very deeply ingrained reason for this.
In the very ancient past when the Vedas were being put together in Sanskrit, there was a passage that went Atithi Devo Bhavah that translates to 'The guest is God'. So it would follow that a tall white guy must be a guest and must be treated well. It has helped me to see the overtly helpfulness to which I am treated, especially by service people, that I mistook for a desire to garner tips may have had a deeper reason. I still tip but I try not to expect too much for the meager tips that I give and I offer them with more respect. On the topic of tipping, the travel books say 5rp (.08), I find that to be a little low, I have been giving 10rp (.17) which still seems low but you can actually buy things for 10rp here. Not too many things can be bought in NA for 17 cents. (Is there anything?)
Indians seems to bounce back and forth between extremely polite and extremely rude. Ordering food is very difficult here, nothing looks familiar, and English is a lot less prevalent than I had expected so I often find the need for assistance. Quite often someone who speaks English offers help before being asked but the next moment that same person may be elbowing ahead of me in line. To me and most of the people I know, this is rude and it certainly seems to go against the belief that the guest is God. I have a feeling that they are not aware of their actions and that in a country of over a billion, maybe they need to clamour to get attention.
You may have noticed that most of my comments revolve around interactions with men. There is a simple reason for this, men and women do not interact too much. Women have their own cars on the train. In public you will rarely see them walking together and certainly not showing any affection or even holding hands unless they are in their teens. In the workplace, however, men and women interact well and there appears to be the semblance of equality but like NA, men are still more likely to occupy the more senior positions.
Could someone pass me a kleenex?
I took the train to Vashi and on the way back I am sitting in the back of the car with about 15 men staring at me. One of them finally engages me in conversation. "London?", this is a typical belief, (not America, which I find strange), "No, Canada" "Oh, do you know Toronto?" another typical question , "Yes, I live close to there, it is 0 Celsius there today" Now the hard stares have turned to rapt attention. "Snow?" "Soon, probably another couple weeks." More questions and soon I must get out at my station, they seem disappointed that I am leaving, I will probably be the discussion at dinner that night.
Another interesting phenomenon which I am calling a reverse race bias. I noticed it first at the Airport. After you leave baggage, there is yet another security check out where they scan your bags again. I got in line and a security person pulls me out of line, saying "you do not need to go through security" and passes me through unchecked. Then the next day, security at the complex I am working out is checking vehicles, opening trunks, they are about to check our vehicle when he sees me and passes us through, same when we exit. When I am out for a walk, if I am facing traffic, no one honks at me but if I am facing away from traffic, they honk away merrily. I would have expected something different based on India's experience with Colonialism so I asked a local about this and he said there was actually a very good, very deeply ingrained reason for this.
In the very ancient past when the Vedas were being put together in Sanskrit, there was a passage that went Atithi Devo Bhavah that translates to 'The guest is God'. So it would follow that a tall white guy must be a guest and must be treated well. It has helped me to see the overtly helpfulness to which I am treated, especially by service people, that I mistook for a desire to garner tips may have had a deeper reason. I still tip but I try not to expect too much for the meager tips that I give and I offer them with more respect. On the topic of tipping, the travel books say 5rp (.08), I find that to be a little low, I have been giving 10rp (.17) which still seems low but you can actually buy things for 10rp here. Not too many things can be bought in NA for 17 cents. (Is there anything?)
Indians seems to bounce back and forth between extremely polite and extremely rude. Ordering food is very difficult here, nothing looks familiar, and English is a lot less prevalent than I had expected so I often find the need for assistance. Quite often someone who speaks English offers help before being asked but the next moment that same person may be elbowing ahead of me in line. To me and most of the people I know, this is rude and it certainly seems to go against the belief that the guest is God. I have a feeling that they are not aware of their actions and that in a country of over a billion, maybe they need to clamour to get attention.
You may have noticed that most of my comments revolve around interactions with men. There is a simple reason for this, men and women do not interact too much. Women have their own cars on the train. In public you will rarely see them walking together and certainly not showing any affection or even holding hands unless they are in their teens. In the workplace, however, men and women interact well and there appears to be the semblance of equality but like NA, men are still more likely to occupy the more senior positions.
Could someone pass me a kleenex?
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